A ‘For The Record’ Roundtable Discussion Of Beyoncé & JAY-Z’s ‘Everything Is Love’

Beyoncé and JAY-Z dropped their collaborative album Everything is Love out of nowhere on Saturday, June 16. Featuring shots at Spotify, the Grammys, and the Super Bowl Halftime Show, the nine-track LP immediately became a topic of conversation. To discuss the momentous event, host Rob Markman brought in Genius' senior artist relations manager Mikey Fresh and senior news producer Hillary Crosley-Coker on the latest episode of For the Record.

Crosley-Coker points out that the project is centered around Beyoncé, but Jay has his own moments to shine. “I feel like they trade off, which is kind of a nice balance, so nobody feels like, ‘It’s really just a Beyoncé album featuring Jay,’” she says. “That’s how I initially felt and that’s probably because I was bowled over by ‘Apeshit,’ but the more I listened it was like, ‘Okay, JAY-Z has some bars. He has some chances to shine and breathe on his own.’ Which I feel like is not always happening on their crappy collaborations.”

Meanwhile, Mikey Fresh notes that Everything is Love helps humanize the Carters a bit. “I think this project also helps bring Beyoncé and JAY-Z back down to earth with the common folk,” he says. “Obviously, like you said, LEMONADE was an album where she put it all on the table and kind of just showed that, like Jay’s said before, ‘Men lie, women lie, numbers don’t.’ As a married couple, they go through it, too. They lie to each other, they cheat, but yeah, it’s another chapter in the story of hip-hop’s most elite couple going through regular human-type shit.”